


there's no rest for the wicked

by hyungsobbing



Category: NU'EST, Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Bromance, M/M, Minor Violence, mafia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-21 21:44:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12466560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyungsobbing/pseuds/hyungsobbing
Summary: Are people born wicked? Or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?





	there's no rest for the wicked

The day before he left his family, it rained. It had rained so hard that the little willow tree by the river near his house got uprooted, and was washed away by the downpour.

Woojin wasn’t very happy about the rain. He’d already oiled his bike the day before, and packed his bag with all his dance equipment. His last dance lesson for the rest of his life, and he couldn’t go.

“Don’t be sad, Woojin. You know what always comes after a downpour?” His mother smooths back his hair gently.

“What?”

“A rainbow.”

-

The next day, a beautiful rainbow appeared, arching over the house and extending beyond the mountains. His family sits by the riverbank with the other families from their district, and there’s a giant picnic mat spread out over the grass. Woojin sits next to Guanlin, both of them sharing a finger sandwich.

He should be happy. He should be laughing with his best friend, exchanging lame jokes and enjoying their teenage years while they last. But he can’t, because there’s one thing bugging him.

“Guanlin?” Woojin reached out for his hand, desperately needing a comforting touch at that moment.

“Yeah?” He interlinks their hands. It calms him down a bit, but not enough. He doesn’t think anything will ever be enough from this point onwards.

“If there’s a day that I just disappear of the face of the earth,” Woojin pauses to gauge Guanlin’s reaction, but his expression is still neutral, “Will you trust me and tell my family and friends that I didn’t leave because of them? That I love them, and I’ll come back no matter what.”

Woojin’s heart beats painfully in his chest, and his eyes fixate on a spot far from Guanlin’s face. He’s worried that he’ll die from a heart attack even before answers.

But there’s a spark of understanding in his eyes, and they seem to peer right through Woojin as he promises, “You know I’d do anything for you, Woojin.”

He doesn’t think Guanlin truly understands, but his promise is enough.

For now.

He attempts to shake the solemn tension off, and says jokingly, “I’m glad to know you trust me that much.”

Guanlin doesn’t seem to think it’s a joke. “Woojin, I do. I trust you more than you trust yourself, and you have to know that.”

Woojin swallows the lump in his throat, the smallest of smiles appearing on his lips. “I know.” His voice cracks, but he maintains eye contact with Guanlin.

“I know.” He repeats, and in that moment, he believes everything is alright.

For now.

-

But six hours later, nothing was alright. Everyone had returned to their homes and his parents and younger sister went out grocery shopping.

Nothing was alright when at six in the evening, a van painted in the darkest shade of black possible shows up at his doorstep, exactly when they said they would come.

Through the window, Woojin sees the van.

It doesn’t make any noise. It stays outside the house, the purr of the engine almost imperceptible. Somehow that was even more threatening, and he squeezes his eyes shut tightly. His grip on his duffle bag falters, and he almost loses his resolve.

This isn’t about you, Woojin. He reminds himself. It’s about the ones you love.

The van outside makes the softest noise, the driver inside revving the engine slightly, and his senses return to him.

Anyway, he doesn’t have a choice. If he doesn’t go, what would happen to his parents, his younger sister, Guanlin; what would happen to all his loved ones?

He sticks a post-it (with a rainbow drawn on it) on the window. No words are needed for this; he’s sure his family will understand.

Taking a shallow breath, he opens the door and steps out. The tinted window of the van rolls down just slightly, and it’s enough for him to slam the door of his house in his haste to get out.

The door of the van opens automatically, and he tries not to look intimidated (he is) while tossing his bag into the backseat. Climbing into the van, he turns to face the driver.

He doesn’t recognize him—that in itself is a small relief. He’s wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses, and the most expensive three-piece suit that Woojin has ever seen--Is that a Rolex watch on his wrist?

“Welcome to OVERCOME, rookie.” The driver says smoothly, without any hesitation or accent. Woojin nods slightly, but the slight tremble of his hands as he folds his arms over his lap gives his nervousness away.

The driver notices this and grins a little, turning away. “You’ll get used to it.”

The van speeds off, and the last thing Woojin sees of his home is his family entering the house, smiles on their faces.

He doesn’t see their reaction to his note, and he’s glad for that.

-

Their headquarters are surprisingly close to his hometown. It’s a half an hour drive, and he’s horrified that a mafia headquarter is located so close to where his family is.

The driver drops him off. “Good luck, I think you might find yourself needing it quite often.” Then Woojin is left standing there all alone, right outside a building.

But there’s no door on the building.  _ What? _ He thinks, walking hesitantly up to the door, and is about to knock, when—

“Welcome to OVERCOME headquarters. What is your business here?” Woojin nearly screams when a guy with a bowler hat pops his head out of a door that seems to have materialized out of nowhere.

“I—I’m Park Woojin, I—” He doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t know what to say, and there’s an awful feeling in his stomach as he realizes how unprepared he is for this entire ordeal.

“Ah, Park Woojin.” The guy sticks his head back inside so that only his bowler hat is showing, and the door slides downwards (through the floor?) to reveal a long hallway. “Come with me, he’s waiting.”

_ He? _ Woojin wants to ask, but he doesn’t dare to ask the guy who was already five paces ahead of him. “Hurry along!” He doesn’t turn back and he doesn’t shout, but his voice carries along the long corridor, seeming to bounce off every surface.

He then realizes he’s walking along an entire corridor of mirrors, and he reaches out to touch at one of them, but he pulls his hand back quickly when a camera swivels around and the lenses focus on his face.

“Don’t touch that!” The guy says again, but this time from a distance and that’s when Woojin realizes that the guy walking straight into a mirror.

He hurries to follow after him, and his jaw drops in amazement as he finds himself walking through the mirrors to reveal a huge office.

(He’s just a small-town boy from Busan; he hasn’t seen much other than farms and more farms.)

Woojin scans the office from ceiling to floor, and it hits him that the entire office is made out of one way glass—which meant the mirrors were one way glasses and  _ they could see everything that he did. _

He turns to the bowler hat guy to ask, but he seems to have disappeared.

Suddenly, Woojin feels very, very small. He hears a throat clear and he’s almost afraid to look up.

He looks up anyway, and the chair swivels around slowly as a face comes into view. “Welcome to OVERCOME, Park Woojin.”

-

“As you know, you’re here because your parents owe a colossal amount of debt to us,” the Caporegime, Ong Seongwoo, pauses for dramatic effect, “and you’ve been sent here to pay.”

Woojin keeps quiet, head down, eyes fixed on a nail in the large oak desk. He doesn’t want to look up, doesn’t want to meet Ong Seongwoo’s eyes, doesn’t want to be here at all.

“Aren’t you going to answer?” His tone is pleasant and there’s a slight smile on his face, but there’s this dangerous glimmer in his eyes and a threatening undertone in his voice tells Woojin that Ong Seongwoo is not to be crossed.

“Y-yes. I am aware of that.” Woojin’s voice is barely above a whisper.

“Good. And to pay back the debt that your family owes, you’ll be working here for,” He consults the palm-sized tablet, “Twenty years,” His smile widens.

Woojin’s heart sinks to his feet. He knew that he’d be here for an extremely long time, but he hadn’t expected it to be twenty years.  _ Twenty years.  _ His heart is beating extremely fast, and the words he wants to say won’t come out.

He wants to throw a fit right there and then, and scream and ask  _ why must it be me? _ He wants to know—he wants to know  _ why _ because  _ my parent’s actions are not mine, my parents’ debt is not mine, and why must it be twenty years _ but then he’s reminded of his younger sister and parents at home. And that is all he needs to realise that—

This is not about you, he reminds himself.

“And the only way out from OVERCOME after twenty years is death.” Ong Seongwoo finishes. “Either stay, or die. We can’t have moles running around, selling us out.”

He stands up from the chair, wheels rolling silently on the carpeted floor, and walks right out of the office, into a door Woojin hadn’t seen before.

That’s when he stumbles on his feet, legs shaky, breaths starting to come in heavy pants, and he trips over nothing, falling, falling and falling until he cannot hear or see or feel anything.

-

The place was exactly how he’d imagined it to be. Everything was in varying shades of silver and black, with the lightest tinge of red on the walls of the training center and living quarters.

(He hopes it’s not blood.)

Woojin sits alone at the mess hall, stabbing viciously at the rice. The food there was okay, and so was the cutlery, but this place was definitely  _ not _ okay.

_Twenty years_ , Ong Seongwoo’s voice rings in his head. _A lifetime_ , he tells himself. Another promise broken, _I’ll come back no matter_ _what_ becoming just another meaningless phrase.

He wants to cry out to the sky about the blatant unfairness of this all, about the opportunities he’d left behind. Attending a dance university in Seoul; a happy family with two children and one Jindo dog; a stable source of income so his sister could go to a private school.

But it’s all taken away now, and what can he do?

Woojin drops his head to the table, narrowly missing the metal tray of food. He lies there for what must be at least ten minutes, tuning out the buzzing of the other trainees around him.

He squeezes his eyes tightly and hopes that this is all a dream and that when he wakes up he’ll be in the fields next to Guanlin, sitting at their spot under the old willow tree.

A metal tray is slammed down next to him and he prays that the person will just go away, because he doesn’t think he can handle any human interaction right now without bursting out into tears.

“Hey.” Startled, he looks up and the first thought that comes to mind is  _ well, at least one of my wishes came true. _

Guanlin is sitting next to him, alternating between staring at his food and the ceiling.

He blinks. “Guanlin?” What was he doing here? His best friend couldn’t possibly have followed him into this place—that would be absolutely stupid. How could he even have known that Woojin would be here?

“No, apparently, I’m his doppelganger.” Guanlin (or Guanlin’s twin) rolls his eyes and Woojin decides that it must be him because who else would roll their eyes like that?

Woojin takes one full minute to process that Guanlin, his Taiwanese best friend who migrated from his hometown to Busan, is currently sitting next to him; in a mafia gang’s mess hall.

“But why are you here? Did you follow me here? Guanlin, I always knew you were kind of dumb but not dumb enough to follow me into a death trap and- did you sign a contract with them? You can barely speak fluent Korean and you’re going to get picked on by everyone here and—”

He’s barely short of going into a full-blown panic attack when Guanlin covers Woojin’s mouth with his hand, looking around at the trainees who were starting to give them curious looks. “Shut up, you’re really loud.” Woojin shakes his head vehemently.

“No, I’ve been here for longer than you have. I’m located in Busan as a sort of spy, I guess?” Guanlin explains.

“Is that really all?” Woojin says. “That description was awfully brief.”

“What?” He raises an eyebrow, and Woojin realises that his mouth is still covered by Guanlin’s hand.

Licking his hand and causing Guanlin to draw away in disgust, he repeats, “Is that all? You’re being intentionally vague.” He pauses, and something hits him. “And how do you know what I’m here for?”

“That’s because Guanlinnie here is a really, really, _ really _ high ranked person in here, and he knows  _ everything _ .” Woojin hears the voice before he sees the person, and then he raises his eyes to see a pair of wide eyes staring at him but somehow at the same time shoving spoonfuls of rice and meat into his mouth.

“Seonho, stop exaggerating.” Guanlin sighs.

“No! Hyungseob trusts him a lot and that’s why he got chosen to be sent out as a double agent. It’s not fair that he gets to return to see his hometown and see his ‘adorable best friend with the cutest smile’ all the time. Wait, aren’t you that best friend?” Seonho stops eating just to give Woojin a once-over, and he gapes. “You  _ are _ !”

“Okay, Seonho, it’s time to go back to Minhyun hyung now and disturb him instead. Bye!” Guanlin reaches over to kick him hard in the shin and Seonho pouts, standing up and carrying his tray with him. Woojin watches as he hurries over to another table with an older guy and sits on his lap.

Except that Seonho is too big to fit into the guy’s lap comfortably and ends up sitting with his legs sprawling out over the benches.

Woojin turns back to Guanlin. “Seonho tends to exaggerate a bit. I’m just a spy, okay?”

The guy with the bowler hat that had met him at the door of the building ran across the mess hall, banging wildly on a metal pot. He wasn’t wearing the bowler hat anymore, Woojin notices. He wonders why. “Lunch’s over, slackers!” He screams.

“That’s Jaehwan. Technically, he’s the same rank as you but he just likes to pretend he’s not.” Seonho is back at their table again, wrapping his arms around Guanlin, draping his entire body over his back when Guanlin tries to stand up.

“Get off!” Guanlin shakes Seonho off him, but Woojin and him have been best friends for a lifetime, and it’s impossible to miss the spark of affection in his eyes as he pushes Seonho away.

-

Woojin half-hides behind Guanlin as the instructor (apparently, his name is Youngmin) calls out Jaehwan to show them how to perfectly throw a Bolo Punch.

(“That’s the name of a punch?” “Yeah, there’s also the Dempsey Roll and Gazelle Punch.” “It sounds like a cocktail?”)

Jaehwan grabs the corners of the boxing ring and flips himself upwards, grinning when he lands perfectly in the center of the ring. “Show off!” Seonho shouts from the back.

“You wanna come up here to let Jaehwan throw one at you?” Youngmin shouts back at Seonho. “Nah, I’m good!” He replies, and everyone in the room laughs.

Woojin wonders why the atmosphere in the room is so light-hearted, isn’t this a mafia gang?

“Rookie! You’re going first.” Youngmin points to someone in the crowd, and Woojin breathes a sigh of relief when he wasn’t picked. But no one goes up; maybe it’s because they’re scared?

Woojin waits for the chosen to step up, scanning over the crowd. But somehow everyone is looking at  _ him _ ; but why?

 

“What are you doing? Go!” Guanlin nudges him in the back, laughing.

Woojin frowns in confusion but then a terrible realization hits him—Guanlin’s laughing at him. Oh no.

He doesn’t have time to refuse when Guanlin pushes him again, albeit a little harder. He stumbles forward but regains balance when he bangs into the person in front of him.

Shakily, he moves up the steps to face Jaehwan. (He wasn’t going to embarrass himself by going up the Jaehwan way; he’d probably land on Jaehwan and get the life beat out of him.)

“You alright there? Jaehwan, hit lightly, he’s still new—” A fist drives straight into Woojin’s face and he hears a  _ crack _ before his hits the floor for the second time that day.

-

“Yo, Woojin, wake up! It’s dinner and I don’t wanna go hungry because of you. You’ve been knocked out for long enough.” Someone is shaking him very hard and he can almost feel his bones rattle around in his body.

“Stop it,” He grumbles, pushing the person away blindly. His hand is met with a wall of solid muscle, and the person doesn’t budge. Woojin cracks his eyes open slowly to see a very grumpy Guanlin standing right beside his bunk bed.

Wait, since when did his best friend have muscles? He pokes Guanlin’s stomach again to test, and  _ yes _ , he has muscles.

Woojin bumps his head while standing up, glaring at him resentfully for never telling him that he had abs. Woojin had never bothered to check for muscles on the guy because since when had he seen Guanlin working out.

_ Hold on _ , Woojin thinks. When has he ever seen Guanlin in school?  _ Never, because Guanlin went to a private school. _

“Hey, Guanlin, what was the school you went to again?” Maybe he’d told Woojin but he just didn’t remember.

“I never went to school, you dumbass, I came here in the mornings and afternoons while the rest of you were in school.” Guanlin rolls his eyes good-naturedly and walks out of the room.

“Don’t your parents know?” Woojin hurries after him, smoothing his hair down.

“I don’t have any.” Guanlin quickens his pace to enter the mess hall, and Woojin decides to drop the topic. For now.

“Oh my god, what happened to my nose?” Woojin screams when he sees his reflection in the metal dining tray.

The entire mess hall falls into silence, everyone turning around to face Woojin.

Then Guanlin starts laughing, everyone starts laughing, and Woojin can’t help but to join in too.

-

The days pass by easily, in the same routine. Breakfast, training, lunch, training, dinner, train, sleep. The environment was good enough; the company was good enough; the food was good enough, but yet it wasn’t enough.

On most days, when he’s lying in his bunk bed just above Guanlin’s empty bed, he thinks of his family. He wonders how they’re doing, if they miss him, if they’re going around handing out large  _ MISSING _ posters like they once did for their lost dog—if they even still remember him.

He also wonders if they got the significance of his rainbow note on the window, will they think of Woojin whenever they see a rainbow in the sky?

Then he laughed at the absurdity of it all. What did Guanlin say to them? Did he tell them that he died? Maybe they thought he died, and held a funeral for him.

But then he supposes that there’s no use in wondering because he won’t ever see them again.

-

It’s about two months since he’s arrived at this place. He’s watched as July turned into August, and August turned into September. His techniques were improving, he’d even managed to beat everyone in his pistol training sessions.

He just wondered when  _ something _ would actually happen in his life.

-

That  _ something _ happens about three months after he arrives. It’s a Tuesday, (he thinks? The place didn’t have a calendar, and trainee soldiers couldn’t go out of the headquarters until they were fully trained.) and he’s about to wake Guanlin up when he realises—he isn’t even in bed.

His pillows and blankets were very carefully arranged to look like someone was hiding under the covers, but when Woojin throws his body onto the bed to wake him up, Guanlin isn’t there.

Strange. Usually, the boy would have returned from Busan at seven thirty sharp in the morning and lie on his bed until it was time to head for breakfast.

“Guanlin?” He calls softly at first, not wanting to wake anyone else in the room.

“Guanlin!” He says slightly louder, and Jaehwan shushes him in his sleep from across the room. He winces and steps out of the room. Jaehwan would butcher him on the spot if woken up.

Woojin walks slowly to the bathroom. Maybe he’d woken up before him and went to shower? Unlikely; because he’s never seen the boy shower before.

Come to think of it, he had pretty bad hygiene.

But Guanlin wasn’t in the bathroom, and the only person showering swore and threw a shampoo bottle at him just before Woojin could retreat out of the toilet.

He walked aimlessly around the area that the trainees were restricted to. The training centre, the mess hall, the dorms, the bathrooms and the small basketball court.

He was just about to leave the basketball courts when he hears a very soft scuffling near him. Curious, he walks closer to the sound, feet barely making a sound and—Guanlin?

The boy is in a very odd position, half his body inside a drain and the other half scrabbling for purchase on the granite floor.

Guanlin whips around, eyes large and panicked, and almost drops the drain cover. He opens his mouth to try and explain until he realises that it’s just Woojin, and in one smooth motion, pulls Woojin towards him until he’s falling—but only for a second until his feet touch hard ground.

They’re enclosed in darkness again

“What?” Woojin says rather loudly, and Guanlin shushes him, closing the drain cover with barely any noise.

“Shut up and come with me,” He whispers, grabbing Woojin’s arm and pulling him along a narrow passageway. Or at least, he thinks it’s a narrow passageway by the way his head scrapes against a rough ceiling and his elbows touch the walls.

They walk for only about a minute when he sees strips of light streaming from what can only be a floor grate. Guanlin turns to him, dark eyes serious in the poor lighting. “Woojin, what I’m going to do next is absolutely secret—you mustn’t tell anyone.” He tightens his grip on Woojin’s wrist when there’s no answer.

Woojin tilts his head to one side. “What?” He asks confusedly.

“I trust you, Woojin.” Guanlin says, and Woojin starts to realise that this isn’t a joke. He nods silently, hoping that it’s enough for Guanlin to trust him.

Very quietly, Guanlin shifts the floor grate to one side, and offers both palms facing up. Understanding immediately, Woojin steps on his palms, and his fingertips barely graze the sides of the floor but it’s enough for him to latch on and pull himself up.

When he regains his balance, he reaches down to pull Guanlin up. It’s only then that he looks around and realises that he’s in the very first office that he was brought to.

It looks exactly the same as before—the walls that are actually one-way mirrors, the giant oak desk, the organized cabinets and the rolling chair. Except that Ong Seongwoo isn’t in the room right now, and there’s no one there except the both of them.

Guanlin steps lightly across the room to the cabinet, and he produces a plain silver key from his pocket.

“What is that?” He asks, before remembering that this room wasn’t soundproof.

His best friend ignores him and pushes against a spot in the wall to reveal a door, in which he inserts the key into and the door opens with a soft  _ click _ .

Guanlin disappears into the door, and Woojin pauses, apprehensive about this whole ordeal—but he trusts Guanlin, so he follows him anyway.

There’s only a small step before he reaches a soft floor, and in front of him is a sprawling display of files and binders and all sorts of dossiers.

Following after the sound of his footsteps, Woojin turns a corner to see Guanlin shove another file—an unsuspecting manila folder—into the shelves.

“This is why I’m here.” Guanlin turns around to face Woojin, gesturing at the files around him.

“Remember when Seonho said that I was a double agent? He wasn’t far off from the truth. I’m working to—” He stops when both of them hear footsteps from outside the hidden room, and his eyes grow large when the footsteps draw closer.

Woojin pulls Guanlin deeper into the room, hiding behind a bookshelf. They wait, breaths shallow and anxious, as the footsteps become louder and louder. But then it stops right outside the room and turn away, and they hear a door opening.

Woojin peeks out of their hiding spot just in time to see a shadow leaving the office. Breathing a sigh of relief, he pulls Guanlin out from behind the bookshelves and they lock the door behind them. Pulling the floor cover over their heads, they break into a run until they can feel the bitingly harsh winter air stinging their cheeks.

Woojin hasn’t felt this alive in a long time.

-

It takes Guanlin roughly six repeats before Woojin figures out what’s going on and finally grasps the situation.

Double agent, double crosser, death if their betrayal was found out. But the only perk—if they succeeded and this gang was brought down, they’d be  _ free _ . Woojin doesn’t hesitate to ask Guanlin if he can be part of it.

-

It’s almost one full year before Woojin is finally sent out on his first mission. It’s with Guanlin, Seonho, Jaehwan, another trainee named Euiwoong and Youngmin to oversee the entire mission.

The goal was to enter another small mafia’s headquarters and steal the information that they needed—“top secret information,” Youngmin tells them with a straight face.

(“Information about their new trainees,” Guanlin tells Woojin.)

The sky is almost blindingly clear on the day that they set off. It’s the first time that Woojin has been out of the headquarters since he’s arrived, and he’s not surprised to see a rainbow stretching across the sky.

He just hopes that it’s a good omen.

-

They reach the other mafia’s headquarters—HOTSHOT, Guanlin informs all of them—in about four hours.

They split up, and Woojin is deployed with Jaehwan and Euiwoong to the right wing whereas Guanlin, Seonho and Youngmin go to the left wing. He hasn’t really talked to either of them before, and none of them make an effort to strike up a conversation.

They creep silently along the walls, Woojin with his pistol, Euiwoong with his butterfly knives and Jaehwan with just himself.

The first guard is taken down easily enough, with Jaehwan flinging himself at the guard silently, bashing his head against the metal wall and all of them watch as blood trickles down his forehead, over the rusty floor and into cracks in the wall.

Jaehwan walks with something like a spring in his step. They meet a bigger group of guards, this time each of them armed with a rifle. Woojin makes the first shot, and one of them fall dead to the floor.

Euiwoong is about to step out from behind their cover when Jaehwan bursts into a run at them, colliding head-on with three of them at once and tackling them to the floor. The guards don’t stand a chance as all three of them descend upon them at once, Euiwoong slashing through their paper-thin armour and Woojin’s precise shooting. Jaehwan just grabs their head and smashes them onto the floor and they’re out immediately, eyes rolling to the back of their head.

When his bullets run out and there isn’t enough time for him to reach into his back pocket for another magazine of bullets, Woojin breaks into a run and leaps into the air, landing perfectly on the shoulders of a particularly tall soldier. He wraps his legs around the red-haired boy’s neck and gives a violent twist, and the soldier shudders before collapsing to the ground.

In minutes, the entire group of soldiers are decimated and neither of the three of them are hurt in the slightest. Euiwoong and Woojin exchange a short smile before running to catch up with Jaehwan—who’d already brought down two out of the next group of guards.

It’s at the exact moment when Woojin refills his gun’s cartridge when there’s a muffled yelp of pain, and he whips around to see a guard, chest rising up and down with each shallow breath and blood trickling from the hollow cavity in his eye. He’s holding Euiwoong by the scruff of his neck and the boy’s legs aren’t touching the floor.

Their eyes meet and before Woojin can do anything, Jaehwan roars and jumps onto the back of the guard, bringing the guard down and giving Euiwoong an opportunity to escape.

Euiwoong scrambles out of his grip and brings his knife down on the guard, slicing his arm off. The guard yowls in pain and that’s all the distraction Woojin needs before he raises his gun and the bullet embeds itself into his head.

“What the heck guys, I’m bleeding.” Jaehwan says, frowning at the vicious gash on his arm. Woojin is there in a second, pushing Jaehwan’s hands away from his injury and tearing off a strip of his shirt, wrapping his arm tightly.

“Woah, doctor.” Jaehwan grins at Woojin, and it’s the first time that they’re addressing each other directly. And although he doesn’t say anything, Woojin sees the glint of gratitude in Jaehwan’s eyes and it’s enough.

But in the next moment, Euiwoong’s knees buckle, and he falls to the floor with an audible thump. “Euiwoong!” He hisses, and slings an arm around his shoulders, pulling him up and picking up his pistol from the floor. Ten guards round the corner, all armed with bigger guns than before and they start firing.

Jaehwan dodges the bullets, weaving in and out but it’s only a matter of time before they get shot. He pulls Euiwoong behind a wall, and jams his finger down onto the help button in his pocket. He can only hope that someone comes to help them soon.

His prayer is answered when Guanlin runs into the guards from behind, and Youngmin darts through them, stabbing and choking. Seonho drops down from the ceiling onto them, slicing a guard’s neck almost completely open.

Woojin frantically cuts Euiwoong’s shirt open, and he winces when he sees the severity of the wound. A bullet is lodged into his back, and Woojin only has time to hiss a warning at Euiwoong before he digs his fingers into the opening, pulling out the bloody bullet.

Euiwoong doesn’t even scream, teeth biting down on his lip until Woojin can see blood dripping from the corners of his lips, eyes tearing up. He yanks off another strip of cloth from his shirt and it’s all he can do to bind it around Euiwoong’s middle before picking up his gun and firing blindly at the new wave of soldiers that arrived.

But the five of them couldn’t possibly hold off an entire army of soldiers, and it’s only a matter of time before they begin to tire--Woojin is running out of bullets, Guanlin and Seonho have received serious injuries in their sides, and Jaehwan and Youngmin are getting winded from their close combat.

It’s just then when there’s a familiar voice behind them, yelling  _ GET OUT OF THE WAY  _ and a grenade being thrown at the guards before they’re all running for their lives, Youngmin carrying Euiwoong on his back.

They’re almost at the entrance and they can see Ong Seongwoo and two other unfamiliar faces in front of them, when a bullet whizzes past Woojin, heading straight for the person in front of him, and Woojin doesn’t think twice before running forward and leaping in front of the bullet. Red sprays across his vision and he hears an anguished scream before he hits the ground. He realises that it’s him just before he—

-

“He’s awake!” Is the first thing he hears, Seonho screaming in joy as Woojin rolls to his side, grumbling about the level of noise around him.

Then the pain hits him, and he wishes that he could just go back to sleep. Bandages obstruct his movement as he sits up, and there’s a warm body hugging him awkwardly, careful not to jostle his side.

“You’re awake,” Guanlin breathes into his ear, sounding very close to tears.

“Yeah, I am. Can you get off so I can breathe?” Woojin huffs, pushing him off.

“So, this is Park Woojin.” An unfamiliar voice says. It’s gentle and unobtrusive, but everyone turns to him and bows when they see him. Woojin turns around to face the doorway and frowns at the person leaning against it. What’s a stranger doing here? “It’s Kim Jonghyun—it’s our leader, you idiot!” Guanlin elbows his uninjured side.

Woojin hastens to bow, but he realises that he’s still in bed and flushes. “It’s nice to meet the person who saved my life,” Jonghyun smiles, coming closer. Woojin shrinks back a bit. Jonghyun is barely taller than Jaehwan, and has unsuspecting black eyes and hair yet there’s still an aura surrounding him that demands unconditional  _ respect _ .

He saved their leader’s life? Wow. “Yeah,” Woojin stutters out, mouth frozen and barely able to move.

“Thank you, Woojin.” Jonghyun reaches to take his hand, grasping it loosely. Jonghyun’s hand is smooth and dry, and Woojin wonders if this really is the same hand that has murdered millions.

“It’s not a problem, anyone here would’ve done it.” Woojin looks down. What was he supposed to say?

“Really? I don’t think anyone would’ve done it without any hesitation like you though.” Jonghyun’s eyes twinkle and Woojin looks around the room to see that everyone has left except Guanlin, who’s still sitting at the corner, arms crossed.

“Oh,” He says, unable to think straight.

“How would you like to be promoted?” Jonghyun releases his hand, stepping back. From the corner of his eye, he can see Guanlin leaning forward, obviously trying to eavesdrop into their conversation.

“Promoted?” He repeats dumbly.

“To a caporegime. The same rank as Youngmin, Minhyun and Ong. How does that sound?” Jonghyun offers.

When there’s no response from Woojin, Jonghyun continues. “You risked your life to save your leader in a split second, and I value loyalty.”

But he’s still a trainee, and to be promoted to a caporegime was—he catches Guanlin nodding his head vehemently, mouthing  _ SAY YES _ at Woojin.

He finds himself nodding dumbly, the words escaping his mouth before he can process them. “Yes, I would like that.”

“Then you’ll be meeting some important people next week during our meeting, alright?” Jonghyun leaves without demanding an answer, and only then can Woojin start breathing normally again.

“This is great, Woojin. Do you have any idea how much inside information caporegimes are let in on?” Guanlin moves from his seat in the corner to Woojin’s bedside in a blink, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

“Yeah, whatever.” Woojin rolls his eyes and stands up to shift the curtains to the side.

It’s raining outside, the large trees drooping and the smaller trees on the verge of being uprooted. He looks up and catches a glimpse of a fading rainbow, the multicoloured hues barely visible in the torrent.

Guanlin joins him by the window, and says to him, “Do you know why your mom always talked about rainbows?”

“Why?”

“They symbolize hope for a better future.”

-

The next week comes around too quickly, and Woojin finds himself sitting in another office; this time on the opposite side of the building as the first office.

He’s the only one in the room, legs bouncing on the carpeted floor and hands twitching in his pocket. His fingers graze a hard surface, and he remembers the tiny listening bug that’s hidden in his pocket. Guanlin had passed it to him, telling him to find a way to attach it to someone without them noticing. “Find a person who looks knowledgeable,” He’d told him.

Woojin frowns. How was he supposed to do that if he couldn’t even complete a mission without his entire team getting injured?

Ong Seongwoo is the first to come in. He spots Woojin and to his complete surprise and his lips curl up at the corners, which isn't He walks towards him and sits down in the chair next to him, spinning around. “Heard you became a capo just last week. Not bad, rookie!”

Woojin is taken aback by the friendliness of Ong Seongwoo. Wasn’t this the same guy who had handed him a life sentence while smiling?

As if he could read his thoughts, he laughs, shrugging nonchalantly. “Don’t take anything in this place personally, yeah? We’re all part of a mafia family anyway.”

Two others walk in—this time, two other familiar faces. Youngmin and Minhyun step into the room, talking about the newest trainee. (Was it another Woojin?)

“Hey, Woojin!” Youngmin approaches him and Woojin stands up automatically, ready to bow. But Youngmin reaches forward to embrace him, long arms wrapping around his body. His hands come automatically up to return the hug, but he’s confused.

“We’re equals now, Woojin.” Minhyun says from behind Youngmin, and Woojin realises that  _ oh yes _ , they’re all at equal rankings now.

When Jonghyun and an unfamiliar face walks in, they all settle down. “Woojin, this is Hyungseob, my consigliere. You’ll probably be working with him a lot, so do get familiar with each other! But not too familiar.” They laugh at Jonghyun’s poor attempt at a joke, and Woojin’s breath gets caught in his throat as Hyungseob turns around.

It’s then that Woojin knows that this is the person that may save him and Guanlin from this place. Hyungseob has the brightest and prettiest eyes that catch Woojin’s when he turns around, and Woojin would like to look at the rest of him, but his gaze is unwavering and he finds himself being unable to look away. Hyungseob smiles, and it makes him look slightly confused, but there’s still that spark of wisdom that can’t be hidden in his eyes.

Hyungseob is the one that breaks their eye contact, his cheeks turning a pretty red color. “I’m Hyungseob! Nice to meet you, Woojin.” He smiles again, this time with all his teeth on display and Woojin thinks it’s the most dazzling thing he’s seen.

“Me too. I mean, nice to meet you too!” He fumbles over his words and his hands tremble when they shake hands, but he doesn’t forget to slip the listening bug into his sleeve.

The meeting starts, but once again, Woojin finds his eyes glued on Hyungseob’s figure, unable to listen or do anything but stare.

Hyungseob and Jonghyun are somewhat similar, both having this charming aura around them, but Hyungseob’s is slightly different. Woojin finds himself drawn to him as the light from the setting sun shines through a crack in the blinds and strikes his hair at just the right angle, turning his hair golden. There’s a faint halo of light around his head, and all that Woojin can think of is  _ wow he’s an angel. _

“What do you think, Woojin?” Hyungseob addresses him directly, and Woojin jumps. “Yeah, I think that’s a great idea!” He fumbles through his words, not actually knowing what they’ve been discussing.

“See? Even the rookie agrees!” Ong Seongwoo hits Youngmin jokingly on the shoulder, and Youngmin opens his mouth to argue back, but Woojin tunes all of them out again.

He catches Hyungseob’s stare, and the corners of Hyungseob’s mouth twitch upwards like he  _ knows  _ that Woojin hadn’t been paying attention.

-

“Wait, who did you bug?” Guanlin asks for the nth time that day. They were both in the hidden room in the office, and Woojin was about to punch him for repeating his question.

“Hyungseob.” Woojin replies, flicking him on the head.

“You really did do it to him? Wow, I thought you’d chicken out or end up bugging someone useless like Youngmin but—oh wow, you did it to the consigliere. That’s almost as good as Jonghyun!” Guanlin shouldn’t be this surprised about Woojin’s achievement.

(Or maybe he should, a tiny voice in his head reminds him. You failed your first mission.)

Guanlin leads Woojin over to a monitor in the corner, and the screens are black but there’s a tinny voice coming out of the speakers.

“Wait, who’s that talking? It doesn’t sound familiar at all.” Guanlin frowns, and both of them lean in to listen.

_ “How’re you doing?” Hyungseob’s voice comes through, staticky but still as smooth and sweet as Woojin remembers it to be. _

_ “I’m fine, Seobbie. You don’t have to worry about me, just focus on whatever the big bad people ask you to do, okay?” A distinctly younger yet deeper voice replies. _

Woojin looks up in surprise, and him and Guanlin exchange confused looks.

_ “We’ll get out soon, okay? Trust your big brother.” He can hear the smile in Hyungseob’s voice. _

_ “I trust you, Seobbie!” The other person says, and there’s a note of innocent naivety in his voice. _

For the next few moments, there’s only footsteps and muffled rustling as (he guesses) Hyungseob turns and leaves.

They listen in silence as Hyungseob arrives somewhere and the footsteps stop, and his jacket along with the listening bug is tossed to the floor, and there’s a dull  _ thump _ as Hyungseob falls into bed.

-

“Good job today.” Guanlin tells Woojin as they walk back to their sleeping quarters. He slings an arm around Woojin’s shoulders, and he makes no move to shrug it off.

“Thanks for giving me a reason to look at him even more,” Woojin mumbles as softly as possible, but Guanlin hears it anyway.

“He’s pretty, isn’t he?” He nudges Woojin.

“Who are you even talking about? Yourself?” Woojin punches Guanlin in the side, and both of them start hitting each other and yelling until Jaehwan walks in on them fighting, and sides Woojin in attacking Guanlin—much to his delight and Guanlin’s despair.

“I want to be included too!” Seonho screams and jumps on top of all of them, bringing them crashing down to the ground.

It’s then, at the bottom of a human pile with Jaehwan’s hair tickling his nose and Guanlin’s elbow in his mouth, that Woojin realizes—he’s made a family outside home.

-

Woojin figures out that the boy that Hyungseob’s been speaking to is his younger brother--Justin. 

 

“Woah,” Guanlin breathes. “So he isn’t here of his own accord, but because he’s being blackmailed?”

 

“Seems like it.” Woojin replies, not taking his eyes away from the computer screen, currently in the process of uploading another file onto their database. He tries not to think about it, but a warm feeling spreads through him at the thought of Hyungseob giving up everything just to keep his sibling safe. 

 

It was admirable, and Woojin was maybe just a little bit in love with him.

They toy with the idea of letting him into their little duo, but Guanlin quickly shoots the idea down, saying that Hyungseob was the consigliere, second to only the leader and would probably betray them for his younger brother in a heartbeat.

So, they hadn’t, and Woojin had to be content with listening to Hyungseob’s voice over the monitors.

-

He should’ve known the moment wouldn’t last.

It’s three months after he first meets Hyungseob, and Guanlin and him have almost had all the information they needed to escape the place and sell DAYBREAK out to their rival gang. They’d even planned their escape route, and were so ready to be out of this place permanently.

The morning just before they were planning on escaping, the intercom crackles. “Could all trainee soldiers please report to the training centre now. I repeat, could all trainee soldiers report to the training centre now.”

Woojin rolls out of bed and almost falls before catching himself on the railings. A fall from a bunk bed would be disastrous.

He could’ve had his own room as a caporegime, but he couldn’t leave Guanlin. What would he do all those sleepless nights without him?

They all make their way to the centre, eyes still bleary and hair sticking up in all directions. Woojin walks next to Guanlin, and both of them can’t hide the slight grins on their face—tomorrow!

But when they arrive, the atmosphere is oddly somber. Jonghyun stands in the middle of the room, flanked by Hyungseob, Ong Seongwoo, Youngmin and Minhyun.

Woojin realises that he’d forgotten to report to the main office in the morning as Youngmin had told him to do so, and quickly rushes to stand beside them as Minhyun shoots him a glare.

“Sorry.” He mumbles under his breath, and none of them scold him, but Youngmin shoots him a look that’s almost apologetic, and his eyes seem to be telling him something but Woojin doesn’t know what it is.

“What?” He asks, and Hyungseob side-eyes him. “You don’t know?”

“No, what is it?” Woojin is starting to get anxious, and it’s all he can do to stand still and not combust from all his nervous energy.

“You’ll find out soon.” Ong Seongwoo answers cryptically, nodding towards Jonghyun.

He turns to face Jonghyun and the trainee soldiers, and he hears the leader clear his throat and the trainees fall silent instantly, but the silence is one that sends shivers up his spine, and Woojin doesn’t have the slightest idea of what’s going on.

“Last night, we discovered that one of our own was trying to,” Jonghyun pauses, as if trying to find the right word, “Sell us out.”

Woojin freezes on the spot, his blood running cold. Oh no.

“One thing I do not tolerate is disloyalty, and this person will be punished severely—he will be kicked out of OVERCOME, and I think all of you know what that means.”

Death. Woojin can remember the exact moment when Ong Seongwoo tells him that the only way out is death, and he can only pray that they haven’t been discovered. He was so close to returning to his family, and he couldn’t do it without Guanlin.

 

_ No, no. This shouldn’t be happening. Not when they were so close to freedom. _

“Lai Guanlin.”

A terrible feeling spreads over Woojin, and everything is muffled, like he’s in water and he’s drowning.  _ Guanlin? _ But how did they find out? They’d been so careful, so thorough and so  _ close _ to escaping. How could so much hard work just disappear like this—and take his best friend along with it?

He stands rooted at the spot as Ong Seongwoo and Minhyun step forward to bring Guanlin away, and Woojin can only watch as Guanlin is pulled away, unresisting, and their eyes meet.

_ Don’t go! _ Woojin wants to scream at him.

But there’s no fighting spirit left in his best friend’s eyes, and only an apology.  _ I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you _ , his eyes seem to say.

“Come back,” Woojin whispers, but it’s too late. The door of the training centre is closing on itself, and he just stands in his position as Guanlin is dragged out of view, and it’s when the door slams shut with barely any noise that Woojin lets out his first scream, uncaring of everyone around him.

He collapses, sinking to his feet, an awful sound tearing at his throat. “No!” He screams in anguish, and presses his hands over his face, unable to contain his pain.

He’s kneeling on the floor facing where he last saw Guanlin, and the first tear falls on the metal floor.

He can hear shuffling of feet as people slowly exit the room. “Losing the first one is always the hardest, but it gets easier.” An uncharacteristically gentle voice and a hand on his back, and it takes him awhile to realise that it’s Ong Seongwoo.

He doesn’t care, and his ugly sobs shudder through his body, until he can’t feel anything. He drags his hand along the floor, fingernails tearing, because he needs to feel pain—he deserves to feel some semblance of what Guanlin must be going through.

Good. If this was how he was going to remember Guanlin, through bloody tracks on the floor of the training centre, he was more than happy with it.

-

He wakes up in a bed that isn’t his. He can tell because there is sunlight coming from the open windows, and his living quarters didn’t have a single window. He turns over and almost falls out of bed, but the mattress is barely a distance from the floor.

“Guanlin’s punishment is held just outside the basketball court in about ten minutes, do you want to watch?” He feels a dip in the bed and hears a very familiar voice.

He looks up (and almost gets whiplash) to see Hyungseob sitting barely a foot away from him, and he almost gets a heart attack.  _ What am I doing here? _ He thinks frantically. Did he embarrass himself in front of Hyungseob? He must have read Woojin’s mind, because he says, “You passed out on the training centre floor yesterday, I hope you don’t mind that I brought you back here.”

“No—I mean, thank you.” He blushes and ducks his head shyly. Then the weight of Hyungseob’s first sentence strikes him, and, “Guanlin’s punishment?”

There’s a small spark of sympathy in Hyungseob’s eyes, and Woojin hates it. “Jonghyun commanded him to be publicly executed for betrayal. I’m sorry.”

“There’s no need to be sorry. You can’t do anything to help him anyway.” Woojin can’t stop his bitter words from escaping his mouth, and he stands up and walks out of the room, leaving Hyungseob behind.

-

When he walks into the basketball court, it’s completely silent. Everyone around him is looking down, and only Seonho makes eye contact with him. He faintly realises how bad he must look right now, with probably bloodshot eyes and blood on his hands, but he can’t bring himself to care.

He shuffles next to Seonho, and they clutch onto each other’s hands like it’s a lifeline. “He loved you, you know.” Seonho whispers, and Woojin knows.

“He loved you too.” Woojin tells Seonho, and it’s true. He’s never seen such affection in Guanlin’s eyes when he looked at Seonho, and he’s never seen such jealousy when Seonho is attached to Minhyun.

“I know,” Seonho says, and Woojin somehow isn’t surprised. “I guess the ones we love always leave us with some sort of regret.”

They fall silent as Guanlin emerges, flanked by Jonghyun and Minhyun. He’s still wearing the same clothes as yesterday, and he doesn’t look any different.

He hears a sharp intake of breath from Seonho as Guanlin looks up and meets their eyes. His eyes are ringed with bruises, and there’s a cut below his eye.  _ What have they done to Guanlin? _

“Lai Guanlin has refused to reveal any of his accomplices, and therefore he will be dealt capital punishment.”

_ Refused to reveal any of his accomplices. _

Guanlin is going to die because of him, and it’s going to be all Woojin’s fault. He feels like the world is crashing down around him, destroying everything and the only living survivor is Woojin. He doesn’t want to be the only one standing; he doesn’t want to be left alone.

Seonho grips him tighter, and he can feel the tremble in his hands. They grasp on to each other as Guanlin is forced to his knees, and a gun is pointed at his head.

He meets Guanlin’s eyes, and there’s nothing left in them, just an empty shell where his best friend used to be. “Don’t leave me alone,” He whispers, and somehow Guanlin hears it and shakes his head.

_ You’ll never be alone, _ his eyes seem to be saying.

“Do you have any last words?” Jonghyun says coldly, and the glimmer of kindness that Woojin once saw in him was completely gone.

“I have no regrets.” Guanlin says, and in one loud  _ bang _ , the bullet tears through his head.

Blood trickles down his forehead, and the life in his eyes is disappearing in front of Woojin. The corners of his mouth curve upwards, and his eyes fall shut.

Guanlin falls to the floor silently, his head hitting the gravel. It’s at that moment when a blinding flash splits the sky open, and the sky begins to cry, big drops of rain falling slowly down on all of them.

The rain picks up, and no one moves as the droplets hit Guanlin’s body, and his blood mixes with the rainwater, running over the ground and into the grass. Seonho is the one that starts crying first, loud and raw. He turns his face up to the sky, letting the rain wash away his tears. His grip on Woojin’s hand falter, and their hands fall apart.

Woojin squeezes his eyes shut, salty tears building up behind his eyelids but the tears aren’t coming out.  _ I’m sorry, Guanlin _ , he thinks.

Everyone is leaving the basketball court, and Seongwoo is wrapping Guanlin’s body into a body bag. Seonho and him are the only ones left as Seongwoo casts them an impossibly sad glance, and leaves.

The rain comes down harder, and Woojin’s starting to tremble with the cold, his entire body turning numb and unfeeling. But he welcomes the cold and the rain, because it washes away all his sadness and regrets.

_ I won’t let Guanlin’s death be in vain. _

 

**Author's Note:**

> part one of a two-part fic! :)


End file.
